


want you (yes, i do)

by carpark



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Alternate Universe - Office, Co-workers, Coffee, Cutesy, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Fluff, Friendship, Implied Sexual Content, Light Angst, M/M, Romance, Shy Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Slice of Life, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-05-15 23:14:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19305817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carpark/pseuds/carpark
Summary: Lee Donghyuck was left bored, because of his non-existent chores at his newly acquired job. But as those frustrating days trudged by, Donghyuck realized, the sweetness of his acquaintances (choco-pies and milkshakes) couldn't compare to the heart-throb and recently hired intern, Mark Lee.





	1. the better of you

  
Donghyuck, the front desk officer, who spent most of the time gulping down shots of coffee with his leg raised high over the stacks of useless paper, lead an awfully mundane life. All he ever had to do, was to scrutinize the security camera for anything or everything to occur so he could hunt them down and give them a run of their life. But of course, the people weren’t too daring to cause a racket and kids weren’t too brave to skip a wall and do something so Donghyuck, unfortunately had to stay cooped up in his own cubicle of loneliness. Sometimes, he wished, for a slight ruckus, so that he would at least something to do without getting his legs numbed after keeping it over the same position all night.  
  
On top of all that non-existent languid activities, he was given the “night-shift”. The “night-shift” was a pretty famous time known among the employers, for the time where normal people slept and ghosts had their party hats on. Not that, Donghyuck was particularly scared of ghosts since he was the type of person to question the logic behind a horror movie jump-scare. But, to be frank, he was a bit on the edge when he found out from one of the employees that the previous front-desk receptionist, ran away with damped khaki pants.   
  
“After that, it was quite a chore to look for another FD-officer,” Johnny, the coffee addict with a man bun sitting on his head said nonchalantly, “so when I found out you are up and ready to take the job, I was quite surprised. It made you seem quite desperate for the green papers, you know.”  
  
Johnny, how straight-forward he could be, was the only man he would have a normal humane conservation with. Since, nobody did overnight papers like the man standing in front of him did and thus Donghyuck, as better as it can be, got to see only that face and the same man-bun styling on his head every single night.  
  
“Did you ever consider cutting your hair?” Donghyuck propped once at 12 midnight, when Johnny kindly bought him a coffee. It was bitter and vomit-stimulating flavour of nothingness, so Donghyuck swiftly hid the Venti paper cup behind some files, deeming to empty it later on the sink.   
  
“Not really.” Johnny shrugged. “Chicks like long hair and gays do too. Perhaps, I got benefits on either side so if I don’t get to hit one, I’ll just hit another.”  
  
“With your man-bun?”  
  
“Uh-huh.” Johnny nodded, as he took a sip of his disgusting coffee and prompted to go upstairs. But as he was about to go, he stopped and backed up a few steps.  
  
“Now that you said it, it sounds quite bizarre. Hitting people with my man-bun.” He furrowed his brows and guffawed a second later. Donghyuck, kept a taut expression on his face, watching the man shaking his shoulders up and down while being on a laughing fit. When Johnny finally realized, Donghyuck wasn’t laughing, he accepted his defeat and mumbled along the words, ‘no wonder people don’t talk to you’, sulking as he climbed upstairs.  
  
Donghyuck sighed, and resumed his position over his squeaking rotating chair and watched through the screen, as Johnny rode the lift to the 7th floor. Donghyuck opted for one choco-pie from the stash he kept in his lower drawer and deemed he could spend his time playing candy crush before actually lulling himself into a light slumber. He adored one neck pillow wounded around his neck, as he closed his eyes taking in the autumn air that the deep night had bought through the unhinged windows of the cubicle.  
  
“Rise and shine, buddy.” Simultaneous knocks on the table top, jolted him from his sleep. Donghyuck fluttered his eyes open and on a reflex rubbed one eyes with the back of his hand. It was a habit, Donghyuck mirrored every morning whenever he woke up. However, it only enticed a coo every time from the man who witnessed him waking up.  
  
“If your personality was as cute as you are every time you wake up. All you do is hiss to the bare minimum I do.” Doyoung, the next shifter, grumbled, hanging his coat over the small arch of the back of the door. Doyoung was notably older than Donghyuck was, however his crisp outer wear and dyed fringes said otherwise. But that didn’t stop Donghyuck from hollering to the said person as a ‘old man’.  
  
“Shut up.”  
  
“That was exactly,”he stressed his words, “what I was talking about. You know, Donghyuck, being a rationally good person won’t hurt you. Spending a day, without spitting a ‘shut up’ won’t hurt you.”  
  
  
”Maybe, old man, keeping those advises close to your heart won’t hurt you.” Donghyuck slipped into his leather jacket, still yawning with his mouth agape. “I am leaving.”  
  
“All I said was that you are cute.” Doyoung mumbled. Donghyuck had already tuned the metal knob of the door, feeling the shrill to his spine. But somehow, he halted and turned his face over his shoulder, sparing a look at the man who was settling on the crying rotating chair. The chair was worn out, dirty green sponge bulged from the torn vinyl skin as the elder slid one door open and bit into one of their all-time favorite ration foods :choco-pie.   
  
“Hey, your fringe suits that color.” Donghyuck didn’t know why or how he urged to utter that. Those type of words not only itched his innards but also cringed his toes to curls and fingers to be gripped into a fist. Nevertheless, he said what he said and he couldn’t take it back.   
  
Upon arriving to the cafe, and taking in the emptiness of the interior and burnt reek of the coffee beans, he encouraged himself to drag himself around for another 6 hours before he could finally set for home. The shifts at the coffee shop were much more enjoyable and well, effective, than the nights he spent on stuck on the chair. He, as always, made himself a tall cup of sweet latte with unhealthy amount of caramel syrup so he didn’t even a proper name of and turned into his ‘must-drink-every-morning’ ritual drink.   
  
The customers didn’t come buzzing until 9 in the morning. It meant Donghyuck had pretty much a decent amount of time, roaming around, squeezing in some stretches and a walk along the neighborhood. His co-workers, two college students, came around a half hour later than he did, so he easily told them to take responsibility of cleaning the coffee grinder and the espresso machine while he cleaned other utensils off the shelves. Once he was done, he would mutter some excuses and sneak in to the back room and escape by the back door. The college student, Jeno and Jaemin, as much clueless facade they masked, knew well that Donghyuck just wasn’t going to take a long number 2. But they let him have that frugal amount of fresh air until he had to repeat the humdrum events of his daily life.  
  
Cafe-Home-Office. That was what Donghyuck life circled around for that period of repetitiveness. He really didn’t know how to intersect that loop and where to cut it off. He ought to ask it to someone, but he had no one to spill his innards without being cautious of being judged. If he did get all emotionally vulnerable, people would question the wall he had put up and the social distance he kept with everyone he met. Whether it was with snarky comments or rather just not talking at all’ he believed he could live a little peacefully in his overly hectic casual.  
  
He didn’t have that much time to spare. To tell Johnny how much he suited that man -bun or how dyeing your fringe made you look like stupid teenage-flick yet just a little cute.  
  
“What’s up?” Johnny clicked the marble table-top with his blunt nails. Johnny was presented with the ‘Johnny likes ice-espresso-water’ coffee he always had ready 5 minutes before he actually entered the office. “Thanks.”  
  
Johnny sighed and pointed his finger close to Donghyuck nose and flicked it. “Have something, at least any expression on your face and I tell you the man you will be.”  
“I don’t want to be something.” Donghyuck levered down the hand, which weakly retracted by his Johnny’s sides. Johnny’s cat-like lips frowned a bit, but Donghyuck knew he didn’t mind. He would still be pestering him to laugh at jokes once, during his night shifts.  
  
Johnny positioned his elbows against the table-top and sucked the straw, taking the drink in. He might had winked at some blonde gal exiting the cafe, Donghyuck wasn’t sure. It might had been the college hot-shot, Lucas, for all he knew.   
  
“There is this new guy dropping by at our office. Mentions that he might be joining my team and will be working overnights for a month or so. To, you know, learn and apply.”  
  
Donghyuck hummed, as he wiped the table. He poked Johnny’s elbow to remove it off the shelf so that he rubbed the top squeaky clean.   
  
“So?” Donghyuck looked at him, face indifferent and eyes completely empty and gray. He was tired and he wanted to sleep.  
  
“So..what I am saying, we might be having someone add up to our clique. So be a good boy and be presentable. Mama says so.” Johnny patted the pop of raven hair, and smiled so that Donghyuck could mirror his expression. Donghyuck only pinched Johnny’s cheeks harder, as the latter squeezed in pain and muttered a string of apologies.  
  
“I love you, Donghyuck. But never do that, please.” Johnny rubbed his sore red spot on his cheeks and left a while later with a pouty ‘goodbye’. Donghyuck never felt so light and he heaved a sigh of exasperation and went back to wrinkling his visage to fake grin and welcoming customers in.  
  
Before Donghyuck eventually left for home, which was a bus station away, he borrowed some donuts from the glassed preserver. Since the donuts freshly arrived only an hour ago, it was fluffy and mildly sweet against his tongue. While he bit into the airy bread, Jaemin stared at him, inscrutable.  
  
“What?”   
“Oh, nothing.” Jaemin said, while he cleaned the espresso machine trays meticulously, “I wondered if you would like to take some of the leftovers for home. However, you barely stay there.”  
  
“No need. Besides, not eating dinner for weeks straight has squeezed my stomach into a pity piece, so I doubt I will be able to fit things there.” He brushed his hands for the fluff of icing sugar to rub off and slung his bag on his shoulder.  
  
“Bye.” Jaemin screeched from the back of the counter, while Donghyuck only imitated his fingers into a scissor and waved it over his shoulder.  
  
While he rode the bus, he trailed his thoughts to the day where it had all begun. How the useless days just went by and he stayed wrapped under his blankets, just dwelling in a pendulum of fear and just emptiness. It was a while later that he decided, days couldn’t go on like that anymore, and he decided to circle the available jobs in red, on the newspaper. He wasn’t admitted in any, but pulled some strings to at least let him be a front desk officer. He didn’t need much credits for that, just an interview and he was sold. Some days he took up the cafe shift on a whim and laid each day in an envy for his young colleagues.  
  
Home. It was a place where Donghyuck felt he could finally coop up in between the soft comforter and the hard, springy mattress and dream to his heart’s content. His dreams were unrealistic, somethings that were obviously unexpected however that only fueled him to go on.  
  
He received a text later, from one of the college students, Jaemin. It only occurred once in a blue moon, so rather than ignoring the text like he always did with Johnny and Doyoung, he acknowledged it.  
  
__big call…the caramel sachets are finished. shud I call the provider abt it?  
  
yes. u shudn’t ask me abt it.   
  
no…i thought u wud be furious abt it. since the caramel is the only thing in your combo.  
  
i dnt mind/  
  
  
Donghyuck, groaned inwardly as the text he typed didn’t sincerely reflect what he felt. He didn’t even if someone like that existed. Someone with a taste buds to bear the overly sweetness of burnt sugar. He bet, that the person who foolishly ordered such ordeal was dying out of ‘caramelization’ right then. He squeezed his eyes shut, for a few more minutes of sleep but he couldn’t drift off to slumber anyways. He settled for a toast battered with a dollop of Nutella and reruns of How I Met Your Mother on television until time winded close to his night shift.  
  
“No…” Doyoung backed up a step, “no..no..no. A freaking no!” He frantically shook his head from side to side, eyes rounded to a size of a saucer, since he really couldn’t believe what Donghyuck was holding in front of him. A plastic bag full of choco-pies.  
  
“Thought we could fill up on the stacks-”  
  
“We have enough. You know this is the reason why I can never leave money with you.” Doyoung sighed, massaging his temples out of frustration.  
  
“Old man with a yucky blue fringe, listen. There would be orders coming in and out of the office on a daily rhythm now that the deal is closed, so I thought to work through those days, we need more energy, okay?” Donghyuck already had started burying the choco-pies one by one inside the drawer, stashing them in forcefully since there was no place left. Donghyuck meant what he said and besides he had been feeling a little more hungry then.  
  
Doyoung pouted as he touched his rough streak of azure blue, scrutinizing with his eyes pulled to the middle.  
  
“You said it was beautiful today morning.” he mumbled, rubbing the hair in between his fingers. His shoulders drooped as his hands clutched his waist. “I love you, Donghyuck so I’m letting you have your way despite your ill comment about my fresh new look.”  
  
“Thank you.” Donghyuck indifferently said, as he sat on his swiveling chair, dotting his attendance on the register. “Good night!” The door was thumped shut, and Donghyuck was left in his bubble of misery as he thought about the times when Johnny and Doyoung both confessed their love for him. There was a hint of smile curved on his lips as he pondered if he should mutter some love you’s back too.   
  
It had been a while since Donghyuck was actually doing work instead uselessly wasting his time away. He actually was writing on his clipboard, checked on the supposed orders and taped cardboard boxes to be sent to the upper floor. He loaded all the heavy boxes on the lift and rode it to the up most floor and unloaded it on the corridor. He would then had to inform Johnny about the finished orders and return with an exhausted body and mind alike.  
  
Johnny’s voice was muffled among the whooshing cars on the main street and a whiny voice of someone he couldn’t really recognize until Johnny hung up the call with a ‘see you’. Donghyuck frowned and mused himself of opening the first packet of pie for the night.  
  
“Wow…you are back late for a ‘soon’. Where were you?” He could see Johnny striding towards him with tiredness burdening on his shoulders like a plague. His shoulders were drooped and his morphed face really expressed how much he was deprived of ‘sleep’.   
  
“Good day…really,” Johnny mumbled,” As for the addition to our band, here he comes…” Johnny was really out of his wits to announce that out of excitement. Donghyuck didn’t care, really. Donghyuck tiptoed to sneak a peek to who was coming and his eyes never left the upcoming being really.  
  
He was a handsome human he had seen in a while. His black raven hair was slicked to the side with strays falling over his forehead. He was flushed to a pale fairness, huffing and puffing as he reached the tabletop where Johnny had then rested his whole impressively long arms over. Johnny was melting.  
  
Donghyuck watched as the man collected his rhythmic breath, and gulped some time before he rested his eyes on Donghyuck He stared for a couple of minutes, before grinning slightly, mustering a cute chuckle. Donghyuck thought it was cute.  
  
“Hi, there. Pretty much in a run for a simple greeting here.” He patted Johnny heaving back for a couple of times, before he looked at Donghyuck again. Donghyuck never removed his eyes off him. If Donghyuck had got to see that flawless man every night shift there ever was, he could expect his heart to tear off his chest on the floor, throbbing maddeningly.   
  
“Here.” The man presented a tall plastic cup of coffee with a smile hovering over his lips. Donghyuck thanked him and took a sip. He was surprised how much akin the drink was to the one of his own combos he devoured every morning. Johnny by then had recovered from his short breaths and looked at Donghyuck retracting from his arm’s nest.  
  
“I told him to order on my behalf.” He cleared his throat and carded through his long fringe which reached the height of nose. “I know all you do is spit the ones I order, but, eh, nevermind.” Johnny shrugged and glanced over Mark who was smiling as he looked over to Donghyuck rummaging his drawers for their ID.  
  
“The coffee is quite nice. Here.” He handed Johnny his ID and turned to face Mark. “Your one will be on most be arriving tomorrow morning. So just ring up the front desk, and a man with blue fringe will deliver to you.”  
  
“Blue Fringe?”  
  
“Blue fringe, yeah.” Johnny nodded. “Lets go, shall we?”  
  
“Sure.” Mark and Johnny was heading towards the lift however Johnny stopped as he hit of a realization. “I never introduced both of you.”  
  
They returned to the front desk, and Donghyuck rolled his eyes as he saw them approaching.  
  
“Mark, this is Donghyuck. Our very precious FD-officer.” Johnny forwarded his palm towards Donghyuck, who looked quite bored. “Donghyuck, this is Mark. He will be working with us from now on so…take care of him.”  
  
Mark inched his hand for a handshake which Donghyuck slowly took in his grip. Donghyuck noticed how his palms were clammy compared to Mark’s cold ones. Donghyuck regretted not rubbing his palms beforehand. Mark shook his hands and retracted his arm back and buried it in his suit pocket.  
  
Donghyuck couldn’t help but find Mark a bit adorable, with his upraised cheekbones and thin lips which were always stretched into a skittish smile.  
  
Donghyuck settled on his seat, sipping the coffee as his lips were pressed on the small opening of the cardboard cup. He stared at the screen, which displayed pixelated views of the different floors, and one inside the lift. His eyes followed the two people who boarded the lift as one of them pointed at the camera mumbling something incoherent (Donghyuck couldn’t read lips anyway). Mark looked at the camera and waved lightly. When Mark and Johnny was walking through the corridors, Donghyuck noticed how Mark was wandering his eyes everywhere and craning his neck.   
  
As Mark’s eyes met the camera on the top of the corridors, Donghyuck’s heart had beat slightly at the sudden eye contact. Mark had grinned widely then, waving more profusely than before. He continued spotting every camera and waved at each and every one of them.   
  
Donghyuck couldn’t really figure what was really happening to his insides but he was assured, Mark was one cute human being.  
  
  
  
  
Donghyuck rarely felt bored, with the new addition to the ‘night-shift’ clique, with Johnny and Mark dropping by every then. There were many more parcels to deliver to the upper floor ever since the company merged with another stationary production. Johnny had naturally more papers to work with and Mark, well, he did something Donghyuck had no knowledge of.   
  
Donghyuck was more than satisfied that Johnny barely talked about his man-buns or tied his long strands into one as Mark coincidentally spilled to him that he kind of looked like his high-school janitor. Johnny didn’t talk to him for a few days so that left Donghyuck and Mark alone, laughing about the incident for days straight.  
  
The two of them found more things in common than they had expected to find between them, although Donghyuck admitted Mark was quite the mundane person. They both had the same music taste as one Mark once caught Donghyuck listening to The Smiths, and coincidentally had shared the same favourite track. They talked about it for a while and quickly escalated to the topic of English movies, and there again, bizarrely matched every single one of their top.  
  
“Don’t tell me…”  
  
“Not Christmas Carol!”  
  
They both screeched in unison while Johnny propped beside them, wandering his eyes in between then and sighed.  
  
“Donghyuck, really. You must hate me. I barely saw you this excited than the night Doyoung tripped and fell.” Johnny patted Mark’s shoulder while Donghyuck rolled his sleeves up, with an irked expression painted on his face. “Alright, as much as Donghyuck is having a really time with you and I would hate to cockblock but let's go.”  
  
“See you later, yeah?” Mark cocked his brows while Donghyuck sulkily nodded and pursed his lips.   
  
Donghyuck yet again, opened his drawer of choco-pies, and settled for two. He watched as Mark rode the elevator and sneaked a wave behind the back of Johnny. Donghyuck smiled and he was glad that he ever took that job. But that smile soon disappeared to a straight line, as he inhaled a deep breath and wrapped a neck pillow before he fell asleep.   
  
Donghyuck never felt so completed with the butterflies trapped inside his chest, and his mouth tasting of caramels. He didn’t expect the man, with his indigo hued suit and black hair cleanly tousled with gel, to ever affect him in the least. The latter might have no inkling what he felt every time he came down from the stairs to engage in a small conversation as Donghyuck would nod with drowsy eyes and the sugar rush in his system.   
  
“You are really sleepy, aren’t you?” Mark asked as Donghyuck nodded languidly which earned a coo from Mark. “I think I can leave you to sleep then.” Mark was about to walk away before Donghyuck sleepily muttered, “Goodnight.” with a stretched yawn and Mark only chuckled. Yet, Mark never forgot to still glance at the camera’s with an unexplained expression as he broke into a smile and waved. He mumbled to what it seemed like “goodnight”.  
  
Donghyuck, for what seemed to be while, opted for his battered Ipod, which he always buried inside his upper drawer. He rarely listened to it, since most of the time he would be sleeping his night away. However, that night as he slept while the song lulled him in, he reminisced about the time he and Mark had that conversation about songs and how they matched in every favourite they had.  
  
“Oh, what are you doing out here in the wild?” Mark exclaimed, with wide eyes, noticing Donghyuck sitting on the bench of the lake behind their office. Donghyuck rolled his eyes, as he scooted to the right, patting the seat beside him, signaling Mark to take a seat. Mark did not adorn his suit, nor had his hair gelled up. He looked casual, with bare arms revealing from his folded sleeves and hair curled to soft waves.  
  
“This is no wild, Mark. But, I’m here drinking away some lonely coffee while stargazing.” Donghyuck sighed as he looked up the immaculate dark sky, without a single glitter on its silk canvas.   
  
“There are no stars.” Mark stated.   
  
“Exactly.” Donghyuck grumbled, while he sipped another of his sweet drink which seemed to irritate his throat.   
  
“I don’t understand you.”   
  
“Nobody does, as a matter of fact.” With a shrug, he rummaged in his pocket for his old Ipod, to perhaps intend to show it to Mark so they could have continued their conversation from last time. But he was interrupted, so he hid in his pocket again. He never had the chance to show it through the night.  
  
“That day, Johnny sobbed that his son was ignoring him. I was actually surprised that he had a son. He looked so young to conceive and be tied down to someone. But then I found out-”  
  
“It was actually me, right?”   
  
“Uh-huh.” Mark smiled with a weird quiver to his lips but he soon surrendered himself to a loud laughter. Donghyuck wanted to compliment Mark, quipping how beautiful of a smile he had but he didn’t feel like telling it then. It wasn’t the right time.  
  
“So…what’s up with accompanying yourself with a cup of coffee? I mean you could like page me up from there and I would come running down.” Mark said, as he looked at Donghyuck with his eyebrows knitted together. It felt like the small distance that Donghyuck created between them and the little space between their fingers to almost touch, made so much difference. It was slowly coming close, threads forming in between those air spaces.   
  
“I kind of like being lonely. You know alone with those stupid thoughts.” Donghyuck inadvertently moved a little backwards, as Mark seemed to had inched quite the remaining distance form just a minute ago. The close proximity made Donghyuck skittish, his hands were already sweaty against the cupboard surface of his coffee cup. The ice cubes were already melted, remaining as a liquid layer on top of his caramel combo.  
  
“Oh, understandable. You know, when I was a student, I barely had people called friends. I was kind of a loner. So then, I noticed that when I was alone, I noticed all those unique things that I seemed not to catch when I was like with my classmates.” Mark beamed, and Donghyuck’s heartbeat a little. Mark reverted his eyes off Donghyuck, and rested it on the street light, erect beside them. The fluorescent light that reflected off the bulb, illuminated the dark brown strands of his hair, and glitters in his irises that Donghyuck never noticed. He was mesmerized by the small details and blemishes on his skin, the long eyelashes that touched his cheeks as he blinked ever so softly and the smile that tugged the corners of his lips. No, Donghyuck was not in love.   
  
Mark pointed at the street light, as grinned. “See, this street light might seem just a street light to us now but if I leave, perhaps, you can see something unique about it that we, together didn’t see.” Mark turned to Donghyuck excitedly, with his hands resting too close to Donghyuck’s thighs. He didn’t feel like drinking his coffee anymore then.  
  
“What do you think?” He asked as he waited expectantly for Donghyuck to say something. There was nothing on the tip of his tongue as his heartbeat annoyingly muffled everything around him.   
  
“I will inform you if I find anything extraordinary, Mark. Now, you should go.” Donghyuck shoo-ed him with a wave of his hands. Yes, he was trying to send him away because he couldn’t handle an “alone” within them. It seemed too close, too much to be cautious about. Donghyuck hadn’t felt that in years and honestly he perhaps didn’t have the proper knowledge how to handle right then.  
  
“Are you kicking me out?” Mark pouted and Donghyuck questioned every chance that were floating around them. Donghyuck gave a motorized nod, as Mark stood with his hands burrowed in his pockets.   
  
“Well, I guess I am going now. It’s getting chilly so get back to your desk soon.” Mark smiled and sighed. He turned on his heel and walked backwards as he waved lightly. Donghyuck was glad, that night was still dark, so that  his vermilion shaded visage was no way visible enough.   
  
Donghyuck tried to suppress what he felt inside to be a mere attachment, that he was finally warming up to someone. Yes, Doyoung and Johnny had tried multiple approaches to get a smooch or something close to a hug from him but it all resulted in futile attempts and a prolonged whine however Donghyuck loved them as long as he was aware. He was just not that over the top to caress their cheeks or press his lips against them no matter how much they requested.  
  
But rather he gifted them small things that he thought they might appreciate. Perhaps it was just a box of cheap hair paint, which thankfully returned Donghyuck with a wide gummy smile and a cinching hug for which he could not breath for a moment. Or a hairband that Donghyuck bought for a dollar and gifted Johnny on his birthday and Johnny returned him with the same treatment (a tight embrace which he forcefully wrung himself from). He decided that he would not buy them gifts indefinitely.  
  
The coffee cups kept piling up on the trash bin and so did the sticky noted that he plunged in his drawer rather forcefully yet was cautious that none of it would tear or crunch up. Every night, he would find that the cup was placed on his desk with yellow sticky notes plastered on the plastic cup, with ugly scribbled handwriting quoting poems, sometimes just small advises such as ‘get some sleep’ or ‘don’t feed on the choco-pies too much’ and all other cringe-worthy words a man could think of. Not that Donghyuck did mind, rather it filled his heart to the most it could expand. However, all it had was Donghyuck tripping and falling into the arms of affection deeply to the point he was afraid he could pull himself out.   
  
Mark, Mark Lee. It was all he could think of right then.  
  
Donghyuck presumed Mark Lee knew every bit, discovered the corners of his heart he himself didn’t know of. But as Donghyuck served coffee to hundreds of irked customers and a couple of sweet ones, he noticed he never saw Mark among them. He expected Mark to pop out sometimes, alone or with Johnny but he never did. Often Johnny would show up, taking orders for two, which he assumed was for Mark but he wasn’t too sure. Johnny was ‘up and going’ for Doyoung and according to Donghyuck, the progress was going well.  
  
The conversations seemed never ending for Donghyuck and Mark, each adding their own flavor. Johnny had to detach them, by pulling Mark by the collar and Donghyuck used his every ability to stop Mark from going. Then that, everyday,whenever he had to step inside his house, he never felt utterly empty as he repeated those conservation from last night in his head like a holographic reel.  
  
“It's nice to see you being in a good mood for a change. You know, I used to be wary of getting on your nerves every morning.” Doyoung removed his jacket over the headrest of the rotating chair, and sat on his wooden desk. Donghyuck was checking off the orders on the clipboard before putting it back on the table. He noticed how Doyoung, returned to his natural hair colors for a while.  
  
“And it’s nice seeing you not trying out ways to jeopardize your hair. Suits you.” The said only rolled his eyes, scoffing at his statement. He took his seat on the chair, and winded his one leg over the other.  
  
“I wonder if you would go back to being the Donghyuck you were, if…” Doyoung pursed his lips and sighed, “Never mind. You are going to be late.”   
  
Donghyuck shrugged, yet threw a stilled glance at the latter who resumed scribbling on a notebook. Donghyuck rolled his eyes, and stepped out, with the chilly hair numbing his fingertips and the tip of his nose.  
  
“You cut your hair…I thought this day would never come.” Donghyuck watched Johnny touched the tip of his hair with his fingers, with a morphed expression of disappointment. Donghyuck slid Johnny’s cup of bland coffee over the marble top, and stretched his hand over to the cupboard, to offer a straw and cupboard cup holder.  
  
Johnny heaved gravely and proceeded to stare at Donghyuck with his half-lidded eyes and strained lips.   
  
“What?” Donghyuck said as he made other customer’s coffees.  
  
“You know, Mark is Canadian, right?”

 

“I wouldn’t know any better.” Donghyuck shrugged, as he proceeded to hand the hot latte on the person behind Johnny.  

 

Johnny inched sideways, making way but noticed the person hunching forward. 

 

“Taeyong?”

 

“Yongho? Seo Yongho?” The latter snatched the coffee from Donghyuck’s hand in a swing, causing some droplets to spill. Donghyuck sighed and mumbled some ill profanities under his breath. Johnny seemed awfully preoccupied as he engaged in a conversation with Taeyong, saving not even an inkling of attention to Donghyuck. 

 

“Come on, my office is a few blocks away, we can talk there.” He winked, while Donghyuck only rolled his eyes. It was of course another of Johnny’s helpless attempts of flirting with his client, even though most of the times he had been kicked in his butt right after. Donghyuck then deemed, perhaps Doyoung and Johnny weren’t in an exclusive relationship status after all, given the highlighted circumstances. However, Dnghyuck felt that clutched tug on his heart, that made him think otherwise that he should call Johnny. Probably, because he wanted to tell him how much Doyoung felt for him or what he meant when he said that Mark was Canadian.

 

Johnny meant more of course rather than just informing Donghyuck of Mark’s mere nationality (which Donghyuck knew well). The ice blocks floating on the surface clunked as he shook the cup unconsciously, his mind wandering elsewhere, wrapping around the terms he couldn’t quite decipher. 

  
  


Donghyuck curled himself up on the couch, back in their staff’s room. He furtively locked the doors to the room partly because he didn't want the college kids to pry on his conversation.  There was nothing accurately clandestine about what he had to conserve about with Johnny yet he felt a little judged, cowering under those youngsters gazes. It was like they had it better, while Donghyuck couldn’t even figure out why Mark’s nationality was suddenly brought upon.

 

“Johnny?” There were quite some rustles echoing from the other line before it subdued down to the whoosh of cars and hurls of wind. Donghyuck could guess that Johnny was out of his office, and probably filling up some errands for his boss.

 

“Yeah, go on.”

 

Donghyuck gave an audible gulp, pressing the phone harder against his ear cartilage.

 

“Is there something up between you and Taeyong? I mean, Doyoung..he is…”

 

Johnny heartily chuckled, before mumbling a plain “no”. 

 

“I am still pursuing Doyoung...of course...I like him. A lot.”

 

“That’s nice. The old man will like it if I tell him that.” Donghyuck heard some knocks on the door, and a holler of his name. It sounded as if Jaemin informed that someone was looking for him but Donghyuck stifled the receiver with his palm, and shouted “Tell him to come back tomorrow.”

 

“Hey, listen. Donghyuck, the thing I said about Mark being a Canadian. It wasn’t the most expressive clue, I would say but I really didn’t want to break your heart or anything.”

 

“What do you mean?” At that point, Donghyuck voice had broken down to a timorous squeak. The room seemed a lot more darker that he assumed it was.

 

“Mark is going back to Canada.”


	2. baby, finally!

Donghyuck reeled in the memory of rushing out from the back-room door, shivering as he had the cell-phone tucked deeper in the grip of his hand. There were some embarrassing sediment of tears hanging on the edge of his eyes, as he sniffed audibly for Jaemin to hear. Jaemin being a very benevolent bloke he was, adjusted himself beside Donghyuck and lent his shoulder for the latter rest it on. Donghyuck didn’t cry anymore, more or so let a squeaky fragment of his voice be heard from the back of his throat.

 

“So, Jeno will be coming soon to take over your shift.”

 

“Right. Right.” Donghyuck reluctantly pulled himself of the cashmere knitted hoodie, but kept his finger wounded around the hem of the sleeves. It was his first time, being so intimate around someone notably younger than him, therefore for a couple of seconds he couldn’t bear to look into Jaemin’s eyes.

 

“You and Jeno…are you a thing?” Jaemin chuckled, and the volume quivered Donghyuck from within.

 

“Kind of.” Jaemin muttered, shrugging away the possibility of squishing to them to be something official. Donghyuck grimaced, when he realized every pair he could catch his eyes onto seemed to be ‘along the line’ or ‘kind of’ but never perfectly mad in love. He wondered where he stood with Mark at that moment.

 

“Someone came in earlier...”Jaemin noted, as he stretched himself from the seat. Donghyuck nodded, as he faintly remembered the moment Jaemin knocked on the door when he was having the cursed conversation with Johnny on the phone.

 

“Short, dark hair, cute…actually not my type. He said he was going somewhere, and seemed to be in a hurry. He needed to talk you ‘urgently’” He added with air-qoutes, “but since you told me not to disturb you so I shooed him away and told him to come later. Then he dragged along how he was supposed to be at the airport…a mess.” Jaemin rolled his eyes, plopping the cleaning mop on the table.

 

Donghyuck listened, with his mouth inadvertently gaping which he closed quick enough. He couldn't quite round his head upon who was supposed to meet him. For all the clues he could accumulate, he could easily eradicate Johnny out of the list, and Doyoung too. There wasn’t many people he remembered to be short, dark hair, cute except…Mark Lee.

 

He sprung from his posture, as he lamented inside about Mark Lee had actually came to him to see him before he left.

 

“No…no…”Donghyuck cried, holding his shirt down. He shifted his neck to look directly at Jaemin and blabbered questions, almost too bizarrely.

 

“Did he say something? Like where he is he going or when he is coming back? Or…” Jaemin patted Donghyuck on his shoulder softly, and fluttered his eyes closed.

 

“Don’t worry…he said to inform you that he won’t be late. And that you should wait for him. Also, that he is really sorry.” Jaemin noted the answer, strictly one by one as his honey cooed voice rung in Donghyuck's ears. He could imagine Mark uttering the word, too visually as if it was just happening  in front of him.

 

__Donghyuck was drunk. Horribly, inexplicably, drunk on Mark Lee._ _

__

“Thanks.”

 

“I had to convey what I had to.” Jaemin nonchalantly remarked before vanishing behind the staff’s room. Donghyuck trailed his eyes on Jaemin back and he averted his sight on to his empty palms. Droplets of perspiration clumped on the pads of his palm. He closed and opened it, and then rubbed the sweat against his own jacket.

 

The front door chimed, signaling the entrance of someone. Donghyuck gulped, as his heart leaped a mile when he swung his head his head upwards almost immediately. But his shoulders slumped, and his eyebrows relaxed under his bags, when he saw it was none other than Jeno, staring obliviously back at him.

 

“Hi.” Jeno muttered, his eyes as wide as saucers. Donghyuck curtly nodded back as a reply.

 

Jaemin came back and shoved a plastic bag full of sweet leftovers from the morning shift. He had a taut smile curved on his lips, meaning it was the treat was handed on a no-return policy. Donghyuck helplessly tightened his grip on the plastic, and muttered a small “thank you.”

 

Jaemin escorted Jeno to the back room with his hand loosely hanging on the crevice of his neck and shoulder. But before Jaemin could reach the door, he halted on his step to look back on Donghyuck, who was still standing there absentmindedly.

 

“He seemed honest. The airport guy, I mean.”

 

Donghyuck crept an awkward grin, and waved a little with his palm. Jeno was by Jaemin side, prodding questions curiously as to what ordeal took place earlier. Donghyuck exited the cafe, heaving and inhaling a mouthful of autumn air and walked down the alley. His phone blared noisily in his pocket, to which he finally came to receive when he went back home.

 

The missed calls were mostly from Johnny, two or three from Doyoung and another from Jaemin (probably asking if he returned safe or not).

 

“Yes?” He rested the plastic bag on the bunglesome ottoman kept on the middle of the living room. Johnny cleared his throat, and muttered something akin to a complete baloney.

 

“Call, Mark. I have his number here with me.”

 

“How about NO?” Donghyuck hung up the call abruptly, and threw the cheap material somewhere on the floor. But as if on immediate realization, he crawled towards the discarded mobile, and picked it up. He examined it for scratches, but it was a relief that it wasn’t thrown as rashly to cause some mindful damage.

 

✧˖*°࿐

 

But Donghyuck arrived at the front of the office next day anyway, because Johnny texted him to do so. Johnny, also rather kindly, had the last night day off for him and told him to take a rest and just ponder over his options. Donghyuck didn’t although, but feel asleep tucking him inside the warmth of his own blanket, and wet patch of his own tears.

 

“Did you cry?” Johnny asked, carefully but Donghyuck only shrugged.

 

“Oh.” Johnny scratched his chin before mumbling, “You don’t quite seem some one who, you know, cries.”

 

“I am a human, okay?” Donghyuck let his eyes scan over the empty post of his office before closing it on Johnny’s boots, “I didn’t know I could cry either.” It was a silent confession, which dissipated in the air before Johnny could address it. Donghyuck didn’t why he felt his knees buckle over the fact that Mark left. He didn’t even shed a tear when he found that his parents left him to fend for himself when he was only a teen. He tried asking himself if he would cry, if Johnny or Doyoung left, and he found himself answering yes to all of it. Perhaps, it was because he found someone so close to epithet family after long years of feeling just __‘alone’.__

 

 

“Mark didn’t know it himself. That he would be called for home so soon.” Johnny articulated, bunching his suits up as he rummaged through his pants pockets. Donghyuck shifted his eyes, from the clean tiled floor to Johnny slacks, feeling nerves creep up on him. Without Donghyuck having to ask the reason why, Johnny managed a short and reasonable statement for him.

 

“Mark’s brother…he is getting married. So duty calls, you know.”

 

“Oh.” yet, Donghyuck couldn’t understand why Mark couldn’t gather the courage to inform him while he could.

 

“The number.” Johnny nervously handed him a piece of sticky note, which Donghyuck took in indifferently. The bustle in the office seemed to quiet down, perhaps because it was already the time for lunch. Johnny was quite gritty as he enforced Donghyuck to believe in story (which was not convincing at all) that the trip was more spontaneous than planned. Donghyuck, obviously scoffed, crunching the note in his clammy palms, as a sign that he couldn’t bring himself to believe the lies they had come up with.

 

“No, I’m serious. Donghyuck, you must call him.” Johnny had his hand wrapped around Donghyuck’s forearm, molding strength on his skin. Donghyuck rolled his eyes, looked anywhere because he couldn’t afford swaying over the lies that broke his heart. But what made him ache inwardly, was the fact that Johnny had the nerve of hiding it from Donghyuck for so long even when he had an ear about it.

 

Donghyuck buried the crumpled up yellow paper in his denim pocket, and brushed against Johnny’s shoulder, without sparing another glance. He was disappointed, to say the least. Then that he had been walking by the coarse pavement, pressing pressure on his toes as he did so, he pondered on the compromise of actually calling Mark. Yes, he would be able to abide by the friendship term they were standing upon and barely avoid breaking down and confessing. Or, on a much darker note, he could hung up after greeting him, spitting some ill-profanities and end it with a mirthless chuckle. That seemed eerily horrifying and too mean for some nice (not sassy) bloke like Donghyuck to act upon.

 

 

 

 

✧˖*°࿐

 

Johnny, as wayward as he was, didn’t pester him on his future night duty. Donghyuck didn’t find sticky notes stuck on to coffee cups, and Doyoung didn’t dare to start nonsensical feud for him just for the sake of lightening the mood. The choco-pies seemed to empty itself , leaving empty spaces for Donghyuck to unsettle his hunger on. Sometimes, Johnny would pass by the camera, to subtly wave and offer a pixelate smile, but it didn’t fill up his heart like Mark always had. The squandered manuscripts piled on Donghyuck desk, for him to discard. He had gulp down his uneasiness, and carried it down for it to be shredded and sent down the trash chute.

 

Doyoung, although, didn’t miss his chance to offer a warm hug every morning. Donghyuck extracted himself off Doyoung, keeping his eyes wandering over the latter’s austere hair colour.

 

“You changed your hair? Again?” Donghyuck asked, clearly astonished, that Doyoung’s hair didn’t turn to be hay by the beacoup amount of dyes he did.

 

“Kind of. Went for __Honey Blonde__.” He sang-song the name of the hair colour, and wore a meant-to-be seducing smile. Donghyuck only gagged mockingly in return but in the end sent regards to his decision.

 

“It looks nice. Cool.” Donghyuck placated. He had to admit that the hairdressers had its way to make an old man’s hair look bitsy salubrious even with the torturous treatment his hair had to go through.

 

“No more retro colors now, huh?”

 

“I guess not. Johnny isn’t particularly enthusiastic about them.” Doyoung dismayed with a lengthy heave, and looked at Donghyuck with an ineffable look.

 

“What?”

 

“Did you call him?” Donghyuck then noticed the plastic packet, which scrunched under Doyoung’s movement.

 

“What are those?” Donghyuck pointed, and Doyoung held the packet up. He rested it on their desk, and struggled to unwoven the knot. _“Johnny is surprisingly good with these. _”__ He mumbled under his breath and tore open the bag anyway. He gripped one of the content inside and showcased it in front of Donghyuck, who was startled. He crisscrossed his eyes to the middle, focusing his gaze on the red packet.

 

“Choco-pies?”

 

“Uh-huh. Felt like the good-old drawer needed some filling.” He took out another handful of packet, setting them down on the gaping drawer. Donghyuck, licked his lips before pulling an audible exhale.

 

“You didn’t call him yet, did you?

 

“Not really.”

 

Doyoung squeezed Donghyuck’s shoulder, before letting his hands limp by his side.

 

“It’s been 2 weeks. At least, let him know you are alive.”

 

“I know. I know. I mean, I am still off about the part that he couldn’t inform me before flying off.” Donghyuck slumped against the rotating chair, winding his leg above another, “And he can as well as call me. He can borrow my number and-”

 

“I believe he already did.” Donghyuck had then had his eyes locked with Doyoung’s warm ones, as the latter had his both hands covered with packets of choco-pies. Doyoung handed one over to Donghyuck as the latter strained, “What do you mean?”

 

“He is just waiting for your call. He wants to know something. And that single call might prove what he is maybe assuming.”

 

“What time do you think it is in Canada?” Donghyuck asked with his mouth muffled with the chapped pie, as the sweet reek of sticky marshmallow hovered inside his cavern. He felt awfully sickly, when the aftertaste lingered on his taste buds.

 

Doyoung silently did the maths in head, with his eyes pulled into slits.

 

“It is 11 at night, I guess. They are 13 hours ahead so…” Donghyuck hastily handed back his half-eaten pie back to Doyoung’s free hand, and hollered a loud ‘Bye’ over his shoulder.

 

 

Donghyuck walked from one side to another, as he kept Jaemin’s phone pressed on his ears. It was figured that his cheap flip-phone from the 2000s couldn’t direct international calls as easily as the advanced apps on Jaemin’s phone did. He was partly amazed, when Jaemin crunched in Mark’s phone number on the slick screen, which quickly took him to a purple screen, displaying Mark’s profile picture, with his name and other unnecessary details.

 

Donghyuck buried his old phone away in his pocket, disappointingly as Jaemin handed him the his own phone. He wondered if Jaemin judged Donghyuck distasteful phone situation, but his impassiveness showed none of the antics of doing so.

 

 

The phone rung slowly and thrillingly, while Donghyuck had a hard time not to break into sweats. He hadn't had a intimate talk in years, and that too on someone he had an obvious, gargantuan crush on.

 

The call clicked, to resound a racket on the other side, accompanied with muffled hollers and a wailing baby.

 

“Hey, who is this?” the voice seemed strained, yet recognizable as the person Donghyuck wanted to talk to. Every word seemed stuck at the edge of his throat, and Donghyuck croaked the next words as comfortably as he could.

 

“Is this…Mark?” Donghyuck cursed himself for asking that, because he knew for sure it was Mark. The echo of some disco music became louder, making some ‘excuse me’ from Mark difficult to apprehend. Thankfully, the booming seemed to subdue and probably Mark had moved to some place quieter.

 

“Who’s asking?”

 

“It’s Donghyuck. You know the one-”

 

“Finally.” There was a grave exhale, and a chuckle let out at some point of the pause. Donghyuck gave Mark to collect his consciousness and some time for him too. “Took you long enough.” Donghyuck could imagine the smile painted on his lips, and could feel his lips curving soon, inadvertently.

 

“You didn’t call me.” Mark continued, feigning hurt to coat his words. Donghyuck let out a small squeak, before laughing nervously.

 

“I didn’t want to, to be frank.”

 

“I’m hurt, really. Listen, Donghyuck-” Mark took a deep breath in, and Donghyuck slit through the airy pause.

 

“You fucking…didn’t tell me you were off Canada for a month.” His voice was hoarse, as he struggled to reach through the oceans lying in-between them, to express his repressed frustrations inside his chest.

 

“You missed me, huh?” Donghyuck bit back a grin, and the ‘yes’ that was about to roll of his tongue.

 

“I did.” Donghyuck admitted, albeit softly, shyly as he delved into the sticky humidity of the staff room.

 

“Sorry for the noise. The after party is still going strong. My brother-”

 

“I heard, yes.” Donghyuck was then sitting on a couch, after they had exchanged their confessions. Donghyuck opened his experiences for the last weekend, how mundane it was. Implying subtly, how lonely he was without Mark those night shifts. He informed him about, Johnny finally asking Doyoung out and his drastic hair colour change. Adding to that, he told about how he knew that Mark came for him before whooshing off to the airport, and how thoughtful it was. He didn’t carry any more of the burden he had webbed on to his heart, because the chuckles emitted by Mark made it seem so lighter.

 

“Okay so I will leave you to it.” Donghyuck raised his brows after hearing a shrill of Mark’s name on the other side. “Your mum is calling for you. Are you bailing on getting wasted?”

 

“Kind of. Not that jolly on getting a drink or two.”

 

“Now go off. I’ll call you later.”

 

“Fine. Um…today at night, if you are not busy?” It looked like a prodding advance, and Donghyuck obliviously wanted to act on it. As if, Donghyuck had anything else to do. But the problem was not his decision, but the fact that that phone number was not exactly his.

 

“I don’t know. I mean this phone…isn’t exactly mine. I lent it from some colleague of mine.”  Donghyuck mentioned in dismal, and Mark clicked his tongue in response.

 

“You know what, I’ll call you anyway. I have to hung up, or mum is going to chase me with what it looks like a bottle of champagne.”

 

“Okay. Have fun.” Donghyuck pulled the phone from his ear to see the screen dimmed, and Mark had already hung up. When he tapped it once again, Mark’s profile picture of an ocean was displayed and some cheesy bio statement. He laughed, clutching his denim jacket before taking deep air along his nostrils. It smelled disgusting in there, but Donghyuck didn’t care much.

 

“So did you talk?” Jaemin wriggled his eyebrows, as his hands handled some loafs of fresh bread. Donghyuck noticed the silver bracelet loosely hanging on his wrist, and smiled tightly. If he squinted a little harder, he could figure the letters ‘ ** **JN**** ’ embossed on that cleanly.

 

“Thanks for the phone, firstly. And yes, I did have a good talk.” Jaemin patted his shoulder and inclined his head towards the espresso machine, for it to have it cleaned. Donghyuck later asked Jaemin to accompany him to some electronics shop, to help him buy a phone. He thought, if he had to talk with Mark for some days, why not invest in some reasonable, advanced phone with the savings he had?

 

“Cool. Then, Sunday?”

 

“Sunday works superb! I’ll meet you here?”

 

“Sure.” Donghyuck broke away at the back exit of the cafe, as he headed straightly for the office. There was a hop to his every step, and a smile that was impossible to tug down. When Doyoung noticed his face of pure glee, he pressed a wet kiss on his cheek and Donghyuck kindly returned it with a elbow against his stomach. Doyoung winced in pain but nevertheless called Johnny to buy some beer for them on his way to work.

 

“Come to think of it, Johnny didn’t come to the cafe today.” He ripped open a packet of gummy that Doyoung had apparently hid in the deepest compartment of duffel bag.

 

“Ah…he had a meeting to join. Perhaps, he is going to be transferred to one of the office that the huge publishing company handled.”

 

“Okay. A bite?” He inched the gummy to Doyoung’s lips and pushed it until Doyoung had reluctantly opened his mouth. The sugar sediments decorated his lips, some of them was dusted off with Donghyuck’s fingertips.

 

Johnny came an hour later, with a packet jostling with cans inside.

 

“To be honest, I drank one can on the way. It was a soda, not a beer.” Johnny handed over the packet to Donghyuck and proceed to catch Doyoung by his wrist and smooch him deeply on the lips. “You taste sweet.” He snarled and Donghyuck judged them, in disgust.

 

“You look like an old married couple. God, get a room.” Donghyuck retrieved the cans from the packet and marshaled it side by side. Johnny popped one open and quipped that Donghyuck would be the same with Mark, once he came back. Donghyuck didn’t argue with that.

 

Doyoung snatched the can from Johnny’s hand and warned him not to drink. Johnny said something of having a fridge full of plethora of drinks that Doyoung couldn’t even recognize.

 

“Well, good luck with that. You can’t even drink.” Doyoung took a swing of the beer, and swatted Donghyuck’s hands away as well, saying that he couldn’t possibly drink at work. Donghyuck had to agree so he said nothing.

 

“Johnny can’t drink?” Donghyuck asked, as he comfortably posed on top of the desk. He was still consuming the packet of gummies and some of the sweetness stuck to his teeth.

 

“He has some type of weakness with it so whenever he does he goes total Neandertal.”

 

“A what?”

 

“I don’t.” Johnny said, abashed but later admitted that he did. It was a fine day for Donghyuck, as long as he could possibly tell. But during his shift, when Doyoung was gone, Johnny lifted upstairs and he was left to devour packets of choco-pies when a call came on the landline there. It never rung, unless it was of emergence or from the higher-ups, needing something to dispose of immediately. But the only one left upstairs was Johnny, and it was unlikely for him to call there but Donghyuck received it anyway.

 

“Hey, it’s Mark!” The phone was about to slip from Donghyuck’s hold, but he caught it shakily.

 

“Why are you calling?”

 

“I did say I would.” Mark said, as a matter-of-fact and Donghyuck couldn’t still calm his foolishly, palpitating heart.

 

“I mean why on this landline? And it is causing a hefty of bills, isn’t it?”

 

“I did think of calling on Johnny’s phone, but it would be too much nuisance for the guy. And top of that, we wouldn’t have any privacy, right?” Mark assured Donghyuck not to worry about the bills, but Donghyuck had already started counting each pence.

 

 _ _‘Privacy’__ , the word felt absolutely foreign to him. It was the word he could see existing in couples, like of Johnny and Doyoung or Jaemin or Jeno. The word gave him frets. Good frets.

 

Donghyuck called Jaemin on Friday, asking if he could shift the phone-buying rendezvous on Saturday rather than on Sunday. He couldn't bear the expense piling up, and that Mark had to suffer all of it. Also, with the landline existing only at his work, he couldn't call him at day or at home. They, been new to that long-distance thing, had nothing to talk about and had everything to talk about.

 

Jaemin, agreed swiftly and appeared at Donghyuck shabby apartment on Saturday’s cold evening. He was wearing that same cashmere gray sweater, shadowed by a huge, puffy white jacket that looked like it costed a fortune. He had his auburn hair roughly tousled, and a awkward expression pulled to his face. It was probably because, Donghyuck and Jaemin hadn’t met outside work hours.

 

“So, you two are still hanging on that ‘kind of’ or…?” Donghyuck had purchased an impressive model, which charged him his savings of three-months. He remembered, holding the cash tightly on his grip as the store-keeper was trying to politely take it from his hands. He felt grim about letting a huge sun go that easily for some perks of calling some one he liked (abroad), some thing called Wi-Fi and high-quality pictures. He was then trying to engage in a small talk with Jaemin, because the situation was too silent to ignore.

 

“No, we are past that.” Jaemin smiled, “Dating, now.”

 

“Oh, _privacy._ ” Donghyuck blurted and Jaemin looked at him weirdly. Donghyuck brushed it down, with frantic movements of his hand.

 

“What about you? How is the thing with Mark going?”

 

“Fine. Actually, I still didn’t tell him that I like him and I don’t know if its mutual.”

 

“If he is spending bucks to hear your voice on that landline, its mutual.” Jaemin chuckled, and hugged Donghyuck’s shoulder. He took him to some hip cafe, and bought drinks for him. They comfortably talked about their daily lives, but Donghyuck didn’t have much to spare. Donghyuck was not surprised to find Jaemin was someone, born with a silver spoon and was currently studying in some prestigious college. Jaemin then segued the conversation to talk about Jeno and how they met, and the place where they first met turned out to be the cafe.

 

“So since we, ‘coincidentally’ had the same shifts, we got along well, we thought why not not just turn couples?”Jaemin uttered with such casualty, that Donghyuck was amazed.  

 

“Cool.” The orange juice tasted delicious, and he would have ordered seconds if he could afford to. Jaemin then ordered for some grapefruit tart, and the plate was empty in seconds. Jaemin escorted Donghyuck home, and paid the taxi fare as well so Donghyuck promised him that he would pay for it when he could.

 

“Don’t worry. Since we are basically friends now, pay for tickets to an amusement park and we can double date?”

 

“Okay.” Donghyuck laughed shyly, “Let’s see how that goes.”

 

When he entered his apartment, he didn’t even care to slip out of his jacket and hurriedly opened the packaged box to reveal his new phone. The screen was clean, the device was feathery light and Donghyuck thought how it was possible to make something like this.

 

“Now, to read the manual…” he followed each of the steps and saved Mark’s number, which he had memorized. He called the number immediately, and Mark received it without a beat.

 

“Donghyuck…”

 

“Hey, Mark. I bought a new phone.”

 

It was wonder, how things had fleeted on a span of two months. Mark was still yet to come, and Donghyuck was still yet to confess. But their relationship had blossomed to another level, filled with useless flirting and meaningful silences. And not to mention, lots and lots of calls.

 

“So...when are you arriving?”

 

“Friday, 3 at night. Why? Are you going to pick me up or something?”

 

“No…Yes. Kind of.” Donghyuck wiped the table top, as he kept the phone stilled in between his shoulders and ears.

 

“You know those are three different answers, right?”

 

“Yeah. I miss you.” Donghyuck heaved, trying to coat over the eagerness of seeing Mark as soon as possible. That might or might not happen at the airport.

 

And Mark reciprocated with the same answer he did the last few months, “I miss you so much more.”

 

✧˖*°࿐

“I make some wicked pancakes.” Jaemin cooed, while he arranged the dusty shelves, aligning the sugar containers side by side. “You might want to drop by sometime.”

 

“I could. I mean, of course I can but…wouldn’t be awkward working as a third-wheeler on your date?” Jaemin sighed, descending down the steel ladder, which Donghyuck was holding for support. Jaemin was definitely worked up seeing Donghyuck festering his days away waiting for someone, directing calls that were sometimes missed and just dillydallying his precious time. He ought to have some fun, Jaemin thought, when he offered Donghyuck the chance to hand around his house.

 

“Listen, Donghyuck. If you were just third-wheeling, I wouldn’t invite you, would I? But…its just you and me. No Jeno, I promise.” Jaemin was already having his eyebrows sagged, his lips protruded out and eyes glimmering in plea.

 

“Okay.” Donghyuck conceded, to which the latter vivaciously moon-walked and swayed his hip side to side. Perhaps, it was his own celebration dance, so Donghyuck joined too, flickering his limbs clumsily, as he tried to dance to no music.

 

Donghyuck pondered when Jaemin and him had stepped into such state of camaraderie. They had their hands linked, while they bumped against shoulders of strangers, giggling about nothing and wedging a good time, pointing out every potential bugger they could settle their eyes on to. They counted cars too; Donghyuck was fortunately in charge of yellow while Jaemin unfortunately red.

 

“It was very jolly to hang out with you. The pancakes were actually really wicked, so bring some when you can.” Donghyuck spoke to the phone, finally successful in figuring out all the possible functions that device could have. He sneaked out the ‘Wi-Fi’ thing from their neighbour after Jaemin hacked on to it.

 

Jaemin face reflected on the screen, as his wide smile was as flashy as ever. He showed the tub of abundance leftovers he had kept in his fridge, and pouted that Donghyuck couldn’t come over and stay.

 

“I am sure your boyfriend would like to disagree with that.”

 

 _“I disagree, for sure!”_  Jeno hollered from some side of the apartment, and both of them cackled.

 

“Shut up! No one wants to hear your opinion.” That started a small banter in between the two couples, and Donghyuck just watched it from the sidelines. He knew better not to interfere, because once he got into Doyoung's and Johnny’s, two of them didn’t talk to him for a week.

 

He only said, “shut up!” to them.

 

“Okay, I must go. Good night!” Donghyuck was about to close of the window but Jaemin face appeared again.

 

“Wasn’t Mark supposed to arrive tomorrow night?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Take tomorrow’s day off, okay? Just sleep for the day so you can be all energized for the night. It has two meanings, FYI.” And Donghyuck hung up on him abruptly, with the tinge of pink highlighting over his cheek. He later received a text from Jaemin.

 

_**If you need supplements, I have loads. You know, the usual condoms and stuff. (wink face).** _

 

Donghyuck deleted the text as soon as that. But he couldn’t stop getting riled up, as deep as he delved on to the possibility of something like that happening, so he had to skip to bathroom to take care of the disturbing situation under his trousers. He blamed it all on to Jaemin.

 

When he woke up that morning with a buzzing headache, he saw his lockscreen clogged with messages from Johnny. He opened one, and all it said was ****“MAYDAY!”****  He skipped his breakfast, and hastily wore his coat over his night garment to rush to the office as quick as he could.

 

There were two things that could turn out:

  1. Robbery
  2. He was fired



 

Donghyuck was still weighing the contingency of each one, not sure of which one to eradicate. When he arrived at his office, in huff and puff, sweat drenching his face and accumulating on to the edge of his eyelash, he found not a single soul. He gulped, in queasiness, as he sauntered over the security camera monitor. Donghyuck was afraid if everyone was taken in some robbers’ custody and he was the only one left.

 

Donghyuck felt his breath hitch, when he saw what resurfaced on the monitor.

 

There was a white paper, with bold letters scribbled on to them. It said in caps, “Will you be my boyfriend?” with such authority, that Donghyuck felt his eyes prickle in tears. Donghyuck hiccuped, chocking back his tears, because the poster was so horribly made, it made his heart singe. He loved it, every bit of it, even the adorable face of Mark ever so slightly peeking from the corners of the huge white poster.

 

Donghyuck quickly pushed the button on the lift, quickly brushing away his tears with the back of his tears. He muttered, “This is so foolish” under his breath because he couldn’t believe he cried so easily.

 

The shutters thud opened, presenting an empty lobby so Donghyuck nervously boarded of the lift. It was completely hushed, except the sound of the ropes of the lift carrying the compartment down.

 

“Mark?” Donghyuck shifted his body towards the glassed door, scrutinizing inside but there was no one there. He backed off on his heel, before swiveling and walking towards the lift. There was no one there, not even a single breath-

 

Donghyuck could feel his legs wobble, his heart beating like of person in drugs would as he saw the epiphany unravel in front of him. Mark was wearing a casual white tee, tucked in some tight jeans which made him look so hot. He rested his back lax against the wall beside the lift, a smug yet a totally cute expression on his visage and the stupid poster on his hand.

 

__His eyes were fucking glittering, for fuck’s sake._ _

 

Donghyuck couldn’t collect his breath, as he tightened his hands over his waist as he cowered. The latter just stood there obliviously in the middle of the lobby, with the white poster, and watched his potential next-boyfriend have his breakdown.

 

Donghyuck pulled Mark by his nape, and pressed a lingering kiss on his slips before he could stop himself. He pulled away and looked at him in the eye,

 

“This is for the stupid poster.”

 

“Johnny helped making it. Cute, right?” _ _Of course, Johnny,__ Donghyuck deadpanned inwardly.

 

Donghyuck kissed Mark again, that time on the corner of his lips, before mumbling against his lip prints,

 

“This is for being your boyfriend.”

 

Mark slightly pushed Donghyuck off an inch, by holding on to his waist. He laughed, his breath tickling his nose. Mark chastely kissed the tip of it.

 

“You watched too many romantic soap-operas while I was gone. Or, Johnny and Doyoung had a really bad influence on you.”

 

“Or, I just missed you. A LOT.” They both disrupted in cackles, before looking at each other again. Mark looked down at his figure, and grimaced in confusion.

 

“Why are wearing your pajamas to office?”

 

“Long story.” Donghyuck shrugged, trailing his finger up and down Mark’s biceps.

 

“Do you think we can have a quick sex in the toilets, before every one arrives?” It was a daring offer, and a quick shot in the dark, but Donghyuck complied about he impulsively thought. Donghyuck did fear for the worst, or the best because they could probably delay his “horny” rage at home, which was not far away. Mark didn’t answer and just tightened his hold on his waist. He imitated a sullen look so he probably figured out from it.

 

“I think we should just restrain, and just let it out at night.” Donghyuck mumbled, hooking hsi hand on Mark’s rolled up sleeves.

 

“Sex at night is…”Mark shrugged, “overrated. I don’t see a reason we could just have SEX IN A STALL! Come on, scoot!” Mark released his hold and carried toppled Donghyuck on his arms, and the poster remained forgotten under Mark’s sole. Johnny would probably give them an earful about it, but they can worry about it later.

 

“Hey, Mark…” Donghyuck poked his cheeks, his head snuggling a bit deeper on to the junction of Mark’s neck, and kissed over the white material, “I like you. A lot.”

 

“I like you a lot too. This is why…”He pushed the button on the lift and retracted back, “we are not having our first sex in a stall. We are having it at a nice romantic hotel I booked just for the two of us. It is nearby, so calm your kitten for a little bit.”

 

Donghyuck shifted over his arms, worried that his weight might hurt his arms, but Mark handled him just fine. As if he was carrying a feather. He did look like he grew strong because his body looked quite buffed up.

 

“So what…you planned this all along?”

 

“Yeah…I actually missed up the timing and checked that my flight was supposed to land today morning. So here I am.”

 

“And here you are.” Donghyuck sang, playing with Mark’s earlobes.

 

“Did I ever tell you that your earlobes are really sexy?”

 

“Now you did.” Mark angled his face, to look at Donghyuck and rustled him up with grunt. He kissed the furrow in between his brows and smiled against the skin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was, by far, the best piece i wrote. i loved (!!), donghyuck's character here and that i could add and discover so much more characteristics about him. mark, johnny, doyoung, jamein and jeno were total sweethearts so it was fun including them in as well. the last surprise at the end really made my heart flutter as i was writing it. 
> 
> the pair is not fully developed, so i was thinking of making a sequel, discovering their relation in depth. there can or not be another side character added.
> 
> hope you liked it. comment and kudo if it made you laugh/cry!

**Author's Note:**

> well, first chapter is up! this is not beta-read yet so there might be some grammatical mistakes, typos floating here and there. 
> 
>  
> 
> please comment (!) and give kudos (!) It will very much motivate me to write and post interesting characters and plot! the next chater will be up when kudos hit 50! Thank you so much reading!
> 
> title loosely ispired by Cigs After Sex-Dreaming of You


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